2001-2010

  • Jean-Pierre Dardenne & Luc Dardenne – L’Enfant AKA The Child (2005)

    Jean-Pierre Dardenne2001-2010CrimeDramaFranceLuc Dardenne
    L'Enfant (2005)
    L’Enfant (2005)

    A dispossessed young couple living in a bleak industrial Belgian town live off unemployment benefits, panhandling and petty theft. Their lives change forever when they have a baby. The father learns how one avaricious decision can affect the lives of everyone in his orbit.Read More »

  • Ole Christian Madsen – Kærlighedshistorie AKA Kira’s Reason: A Love Story (2001)

    Ole Christian Madsen2001-2010DenmarkDogma FilmsDramaRomance
    Kira's Reason: A Love Story (2001)
    Kira’s Reason: A Love Story (2001)

    En Kærlighedshistorie AKA Dogme # 21

    REVIEW by Scott Tobias (from avclub.com):
    The 21st film to receive official Dogme certification, and one of the few unharmed by its minimalist limitations, Ole Christian Madsen’s powerful Kira’s Reason: A Love Story could be the undercard to A Woman Under The Influence, John Cassavetes’ seminal study of a marriage and mental illness. Beginning with a wife’s return home after time in a psychiatric ward, both films gain their tension from the strained attempt to return to normalcy after everything has irrevocably changed, a transitional phase made all the more painful by brief flashes of the couple’s old dynamic. Though Madsen’s middle-class heroes have little in common with Cassavetes’ more combative blue-collar counterparts, their reunion is similarly raw, painful, and unexpectedly romantic, as they try to redefine their relationship around a new set of terms. Looking and acting uncannily like a young Genevieve Bujold, Stine Stengade gives a touchingly unhinged performance as the title character, a madwoman who tries to find her footing as a wife and mother after being committed for an unspecified condition.Read More »

  • Ondi Timoner – We Live in Public (2009)

    2001-2010DocumentaryOndi TimonerUSA
    We Live in Public (2009)
    We Live in Public (2009)

    A documentary focusing on the life of dot-com entrepreneur Josh Harris, and his exploits over the last decade.Read More »

  • Ryûichi Hiroki, Suzuki Matsuo, Miwa Nishikawa, Tetsuo Shinohara, Shin’ya Tsukamoto – Fîmeiru AKA Female (2005)

    Ryuichi Hiroki2001-2010DramaJapanMiwa NishikawaShinya TsukamotoSuzuki MatsuoTetsuo Shinohara
    Fîmeiru (2005)
    Fîmeiru (2005)

    Quote:
    I think this movie can really make you think about the endless twists life can take when you least expect… 5 episodes in one single movie, every time new characters reveal their inner hidden true self. A good selection of Japanese directors. Most of the time, the characters meet each other, remember thing they thought lost forever, becoming friends and not least becoming aware of the power of seduction of the Other. Of course you have to be a fan of Japanese cinema in order to better perceive the selected short movies. i must say that i love this title because it made me somehow ask myself the questions implied by the movie itself. Although you can ‘t watch this movie as a regular movie, and the stories not seem to be related, i couldn’t stop till the end, because it makes you wonder what story is going to be next, what dramas are in line to be presented.Read More »

  • Bohdan Sláma – Divoké vcely AKA The Wild Bees (2001)

    2001-2010Bohdan SlámaComedyCzech RepublicDrama
    Divoké vcely (2001)
    Divoké vcely (2001)

    A portrait of a small Moravian village and its quirky inhabitants.Read More »

  • Takeshi Kitano – Kantoku Banzai! AKA Glory to the Filmmaker! (2007)

    Takeshi Kitano2001-2010AsianComedyJapan
    Kantoku · Banzai! (2007)
    Kantoku · Banzai! (2007)

    Takeshi Kitano plays a version of himself in which he’s a struggling director cycling through a number of different genres in an effort to complete his latest project.Read More »

  • Michel Houellebecq – La Possibilité d’une île AKA The Possibility of an Island (2008)

    Michel Houellebecq2001-2010DramaFrance
    La Possibilité d'une île (2008)
    La Possibilité d’une île (2008)

    The Possibility of an Island, based on a novel by Houllebecq himself in 2005, certainly has an intriguing enough concept: it reads like a disjointed surrealist take on science fiction — a post-apocalyptic mash-up of A Boy and His Dog, Solaris and The Holy Mountain, with cloning and bikini contests thrown in for good measure. Whether or not it will actually succeed is another matter; thus far, critics have not been kind. The Guardian’s Geoffrey MacNab sat down with Houllebecq to discuss the process of moviemaking, how it differs from writing, and whether or not he intends to contune on as a filmmaker. “Maybe it is a superficial motivation,” he says of filming many of the movie’s scenes in Andalucian Spain, “but I always go to the locations when I write a novel. In this case, some of the locations were so impressive that the idea for the film came from that…I enjoyed the preparation of the movie. I mean, the period immediately before the shooting when you choose everything, all the details. When you create the world.”Read More »

  • Jordi Cadena & Judith Colell – Elisa K (2010)

    Jordi Cadena2001-2010DramaJudith ColellSpain
    Elisa K (2010)
    Elisa K (2010)

    At eleven, everything in Elisa’s life will lose its innocence. One day whilst her father is asleep and her brother is on a swing outside, her father’s friend will rape her, as she cries he tells her if she stops he’ll give her a silver bracelet. It’s from that moment on she will forget what happened to her for a very long time.
    Read More »

  • Chris Eska – Noche de Agosto AKA August Evening (2007)

    2001-2010Chris EskaDramaUSA
    Noche de Agosto (2007)
    Noche de Agosto (2007)

    August Evening follows an aging undocumented farm worker named Jaime and his young, widowed daughter-in-law, Lupe, as their lives are thrown into upheaval. Lupe is more of a daughter to Jaime than his own children, and the two try to stick together… but change is inevitable.Read More »

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